Women have made a rapid progress with reference to health and education indicators in post independent Sri Lanka while making a massive contribution to the country’s economy. However, there is a lack of recognition of strong women with a clear vision who have come forward to give leadership to their communities despite numerous social, cultural, and religious barriers. Even though these women are not visible, evidently, their work has made a resounding impact on their communities establishing social justice and empowering communities.

Aneesa Firthous is one such woman who works with the community in Kaththankudi in a strong Islamic setting to bring about social justice and empower women in her community. Kaththankudy is her hometown where there is an overwhelming majority of Muslims.

Speaking to The Sunday Leader, she said that there were various organisations at the community level to address various social issues, but there was no organisation to address issues faced by women in particular. Therefore, she formed a social services organisation called the Islamic Women’s Association for Research and Empowerment.

Aneesa Firthous

Aneesa has over 20 years experience as a government English teacher, and during their discussions at teachers’ and parents’ meetings, she came to know unique issues that women in her community face. “There are many issues raised in relation to women going overseas for work as domestic workers. Kaththankudi is also a very congested place where women have no access to social space or entertainment. Even though the level of education of women is high compared to the education level of men, women’s social involvement is alarmingly low. Even though a considerable number of girls pass out from universities and higher education institutions, their interest in taking up employment is also very low. It could be either due to cultural barriers or family background. Many families do not encourage women to take up employment,” she said.

In order to address these issues and to empower women in her community, Aneesa with another eleven friends initiated the Islamic Women’s Association for Research and Empowerment in 1999 at a very informal level – but later in 2002, they registered it with the Divisional Secretariat giving their organisation a more credible outlook. It faced various barriers at the initial stage. Kaththankudi being a strong Islamic area obviously did not approve of a bunch of women coming forward to form a social services organisation and work with the community – which was indeed seen as a threat to the internalised issues in the community.

Conventional setting

“In our community, a woman working is not accepted. It is a very conventional setting with a lot of restrictions, and the idea of women forming a social services organisation was new to the community. They were not open to accept it at once. We had to face a lot of issues initially as many male organisations and higher level social institutions questioned the need for a women’s organisation.

“Even the women in our community reproved ours saying that we were creating unnecessary issues by poking into other people’s affairs. Their notion was that women do not have to deal with these issues but there are responsible organisations to focus on matters of this nature. Our field officers had to go through character assassinations. Therefore, no one wanted to join our organisation as field officers,” she noted.

Aneesa, however, added that during Tsunami the community recognised the need to have women’s organisations, and the need for women’s involvement at the grassroot level as only women’s organisation could address certain concerns of and issues specific to women. Thus gradually, the Islamic Women’s Association gained acceptance at the community level, and more and more people started joining the organisation.

“Right now we have 11 women in our Director Board and 30 members. At the community level, we have over 250 members. We have been providing legal assistance to women in our community for various day to day issues, and we have been building awareness on many areas ranging from women’s rights to voters’ rights. Many victims who we provided assistance have also joined our organisation. At present, the Islamic Women’s Association is working on certain matters related to the Muslim Personal Law which governs the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act,” she added. Even though Aneesa comes from a strong Muslim background, she said, she has received all the support she needed from her husband, family, and from her in laws. “My husband is also part of an organisation called Social Assessment. He used to say that they came across a lot of women’s issues which they could not tackle. Therefore, he encouraged me a lot to form this organisation. My in-laws extended their support to look after my daughter when I went out for community work. At times, my mother-in-law even accompanied me when I had to make field visits,” she noted.

Since the founding of the organisation, Aneesa has been acting as its President, and she has also been a member of the People’s Movement for Good Governance. She added that at the community level when a right based issue arises, it is such a struggle to get it to the notice of the higher level authorities to find a solution. “We have come to understand that we should have some political power in our hand if we are to work for women’s rights and to get their issues heard. When the People’s Movement for Good Governance was formed in Kaththankudi, we joined the women’s wing of the movement as we thought their concepts are very much in line with our aspirations and ideas. We started working with them since 2008,” she said. According to Aneesa, for a better representation of women in politics, at least one or two representatives of her organisation will seek nominations to contest the upcoming local government elections – and she would remain as a political activist. According to Aneesa, her organisation has been conducting house to house campaigns and has been educating women about voters’ rights, issues related to corruptions and how a community could get rid of a corrupt political system while creating awareness of how to vote and how to select the right members to represent people in political institutes.

“We started our work with the People’s Movement for Good Governance in 2008 targeting the Urban Council Election, and we could make a lot of impact at the grassroots level. In our community, women do not know the value of the vote; they often vote for whoever their male members of the family recommends, or else they stay quiet saying it is the men’s business. We made them aware of their rights as voters, and how their decision can affect our day today lives. It took a long time to change their mindsets. However, during the presidential election in January this year, we were able to gather a mass gathering of about 4000 women on a single occasion,” she said.

Despite all the landmark victories that they have obtained as a women’s organisation, she added that there is still a long journey to go to break certain restrictions and barriers faced by women in her community.